India to host women's World Boxing Championship next year: BFI

• Image Credit: Google

• Nov 9, 2022 | Dhupali Das

At the last edition of the women’s event in Turkey, India had returned with a haul of three medals...

Digital Desk: India will host the women's world boxing championships in New Delhi in 2023, two years after losing the privilege to host the men's event as it failed to pay the necessary amount to the international governing body. The men's world championship has never been hosted in India, however, the elite women's competition will be staged for the third time, having previously been held in 2006 and 2018 in New Delhi.

"We have got the hosting rights of women’s world championship and are looking to host the event around the end of March and the first week of April," Boxing Federation of India (BFI) Secretary General Hemanta Kalita told PTI.

Umar Kremlev, President of the International Boxing Association (IBA), is in the country for the first time, and the dates of the marquee event will be finalized during his tour.

"The event's dates are yet to be finalized. We will meet with the IBA president and strike an arrangement during his visit," Kalita said. The tournament is likely to be held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. 

The hosting rights of the event to India comes as a significant development, as the BFI had lost the hosting rights of the 2021 event to Serbia after failing to pay the hosting fee, prompting the International Boxing Association, then known as (AIBA), to terminate its agreement. At the last edition of the women’s event in Turkey, India had returned with a haul of three medals, including Nikhat Zareen’s gold in the flyweight category.

Kremlev recently declared that the prize money for the men's world championship, which will be held in Tashkent in May of next year, will double from the previous edition. It will be interesting to see if the world organization announces the same thing for the women's event.